Nearly 89% of Vietnam population covered by health insurance

The number of health insurance enrollments in Vietnam reached 85.428 million people, or some 89% of the country’s population by the end of June, according to the Government Portal.

The figure shows that the target of health insurance coverage of 90.7% of the population by the end of 2020 and over 95% by 2025 is feasible.

Nearly 89% of Vietnam population covered by health insurance. Photo: Hien Minh

This is the sixth year of implementing the (amended) Law on Health Insurance which sets out a number of breakthrough provisions that have brought about drastic changes in developing health insurance policies.

In 2016, Vietnam's prime minister set the target for health insurance coverage, at 82.2% in 2017, 85.5% in 2018, 88.1% in 2019 and 90.7% in 2020.

By the end of 2019, there were 85.945 million people participating in health insurance, making up 89% of the population. It is estimated that by June 2020, there will be 85.428 million people affiliating in health insurance, an increase of 828,000 people over the same period in 2019 but 517,000 fewer than the end of last year due to the unemployment caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Based on such results, the Ministry of Health stated that over 90.7% of the population would participate in health insurance by the end of 2020 and the ratio would increase to 95% by 2025, according to the set goals.

Around 62.9 million out of more than 63 million health records have been sent to request for payment appraisal with a total amount requested of over VND42.9 trillion (US$1.85 billion).

Vietnam’s Ministry of Health is coordinating with the Vietnam Social Security to develop personal electronic health records which will help Vietnamese citizens manage their own health information during lifetime, proactively prevent disease and take initiative in taking care of their own health.